Mage Adam

Chapter 149: Confusion

Adam blinked out of existence and turned into something he couldn't quite put a name to. He decided to call it "information" for now. He became this piece of information and then was absorbed by the nearest female creature.

Even though everything had changed, Adam could still feel himself. He felt his soul, body, thoughts, and even his magic. But they were all locked up. The lock was made of the very magic he had with him. He knew he could unlock it anytime, but if he did, the magic would stop working.

When he became part of the female creature, he couldn't feel or see anything like he used to. He could only just sense the magic at work, trying to make him fit into this new body. The magic took some details from the outside world and added them to the information that was now Adam.

But this wasn't easy. The creature he was inside, from another world entirely, started to break down from within. The magic only managed to grab a tiny bit of information from it before the creature was gone.

Then, without him choosing it, the magic moved him into another body.

This happened again and again. Each time he entered a new creature from different planes, that creature would die. But the information the magic collected for Adam grew more complete. Finally, after entering the last creature, the information was perfect.

A mage from the Third Tower pointed at the creature. Adam found himself inside a part that was like a womb. Then, with the mage's help, everything happened super fast. He was created, grew, and then was born.

Just an hour later, Adam "came to life."

As soon as the baby-version of Adam was out, the creature that gave birth to him died. Baby Adam sat there, looking lost for a bit. Then he decided to let go of the magic. The baby form exploded, and out came the original Adam.

"Is this how the re-incarnation magic works?" Adam asked, looking a bit lost.

The mage nodded, "Exactly. I'm not sure how you figured out how to deal with the weird feeling of being in different bodies, but you're wasting your skills on simple magic. In the Third Tower, you can level up way faster. Think about it."

The mage stared at Adam like he was something very special. That weird feeling, called cognitive dissonance, was the biggest challenge of the reincarnation magic.

In just a little while, Adam had been reborn a hundred times. Every time it happened, small bits of will and thought tried to attach to Adam's main soul. They tried to sneak in when Adam was confused during the rebirth process.

Every Explorer knew this struggle. The primitive wills, small bits of consciousness, would quickly latch onto the main soul when it was vulnerable, and grow. They would then try to overpower the main soul. Explorers often had to quickly adjust to new rules and wake up to get rid of these wills. Some were not so lucky and lost themselves entirely.

Although this was just a trial, and the mage chose only the most suitable one hundred female creatures for testing, the fact that Adam could remember who he was during the process was really impressive.

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Adam's ability to handle this was almost like a natural instinct. He had once faced a nearly impossible situation and came out on top, so now dealing with just a hundred of these challenges felt like a piece of cake.

But Adam was still confused. The way the reincarnation technique brought life from other planes was a lot like how he had arrived in the mage's world. In a sense, he felt like he had done something similar himself. He had sneaked others into this world but got rid of them afterward.

This made Adam wonder: If the Heart of the World naturally pushes away life that doesn't belong, why was he still here? Why did it let him grow stronger and reach higher levels? Adam knew the Heart of the World had to be aware of him. So, why hadn't it acted? What was its game?

This mystery was stuck in his head, and he couldn't let it go. Maybe the next time he meets the Heart of the World, during another big change in his life, he might get answers.

Adam was silent for a long time. The mage, thinking Adam was saying no by not saying anything, just huffed and said, "You only did well this time because the creatures were chosen for the test. When you're out in the real world, you won't always find the perfect hosts. If you're not super fast with the reincarnation technique, the Heart of the World will catch up and you'll be in trouble."

The mage just walked out after saying this, leaving Adam with his thoughts. After some time, Adam pushed his questions aside.

For Adam, learning magic was easy. Even if he couldn't save the reincarnation technique in the usual way, he was smart enough to remember how it worked. Except for not knowing all the details, there was nothing stopping him from using the reincarnation technique.

After a while, Adam left too. Any mess left was quickly cleaned up by magic robots. Adam didn't owe anything.

The Tower was really special. It was huge and built with materials that had special runes to make the space inside even bigger. But, to move around the Tower, you had to have permission.

Adam had two types of passes in the Tower. The first was the common pass. This let him move freely on the first three floors. These floors had things like the landing area for flying vehicles, rooms where you could teleport, trading rooms, places to pick up jobs, and more.

The second pass was for personal teleporting. Once Adam got the special code, he could change the settings in his room and teleport right into his lab.

Truthfully, this teleporting thing wasn't a big deal right now. The Tower was super big, but Adam could only go as high as the fourth floor. It was so close that just flying up there wouldn't take much time at all.

When he reached the lab he was given, the Tower's Spirit sensed Adam's soul energy. From then on, this lab was like his personal space. No one, not even the head of the mages, could get in without Adam saying okay.

"A brand new lab," Adam whispered to himself, pushing open the big door to the lab.

The Tower had really given him a nice setup. Magic robots waited on one side, ready to change the lab however Adam wanted, for free. Other than some special tools or samples that he might want to buy, everything in the lab was already paid for.

Adam didn't start changing the lab right away. Instead, he pulled out some information about creating avatars.